Police union: Officers shoot at 2 gunmen suspected of wounding man

Chicago police walk along railroad tracks as they investigate a shooting that occurred near 58th Street and Princeton Avenue.

Chicago police walk along railroad tracks as they investigate a shooting that occurred near 58th Street and Princeton Avenue. (Eric Clark, for the Chicago Tribune)

Staff report

Two armed men who pointed guns at Chicago Police prompted a pair of police shootings after officers responded to a call of shots fired and found a critically wounded man in Englewood this afternoon, according to a spokesman for the police union.

The shooting took place at or near Sherwood Park, 5701 S. Shields Ave., just west of the Dan Ryan Expressway.

About 4:30 p.m. Englewood District officers were in the area of 59th Street and Princeton Avenue when they heard shots fired, according to Pat Camden, a police union spokesman.

They went to where they heard the gunfire and found a man who’d been shot, said Camden. They also encountered two armed men, one of whom ran away while the other began pointing a gun at the officers, Camden said.

“They see this guy with a gun and he sees them,’’ Camden said. ”He started shooting at the cops and they returned fire,’’ Camden said. No one was hit.

Meanwhile, a second set of officers took off running after the man who fled, chasing him to 58th Street and Shields Avenue and into a building.

“With a gun in his hand, he pointed it at them and they fired and did not hit him,’’ Camden said.

Both gunmen, who were in their late teens or early 20s, were taken into custody and the guns they were wielding were recovered, Camden said.

At 4:44 p.m. paramedics who were called to the intersection of 57th Street and Shields Avenue for a person shot, took the victim, an 18-year-old man, to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County in critical condition, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman, Chief Juan Hernandez.

Camden said the men in custody are suspected in the wounding of the hospitalized victim and praised the actions of the officers.

“We have several officers that are very attentive to what's going on in the district and that responded to shots fired,’’ Camden said.

Police News Affairs could only confirm that there was police activity near the park.